The Cold War

Containment

Containment was a United States policy using numerous strategies to prevent the spread of communism abroad. A component of the Cold War, this policy was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet Union to enlarge its communist sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, and Vietnam. However, the policy of containment came under attack due causalities and economic issues that the policy created. One of the major effects that over extended the powers of American foreign policy is that it gave the US a reason to interfere with any war they wanted as long as it involved communism. During the Cold War, containment was the main policy of the United States. This was a policy that was meant to prevent the spread of communism. ... First, the UStried to use economic and political means to tie other countries closer to it and keep them from becoming communist.

Fidel Castro

Cuban leader Fidel Castro (1926-2016) established the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere after leading an overthrow of the military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. He ruled over Cuba for nearly five decades, until handing off power to his younger brother Raúl in 2008. Fidel Castro was a revolutionary. He led the Cuban revolution. He ruled Cuba for almost 5 decades. transformed his country into the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere. Castro became a symbol of communist revolution in Latin America.

Harry Truman

Harry S. Truman was born in Missouri on May 8, 1884. He was Franklin Delano Roosevelt's vice president for just 82 days before Roosevelt died and Trumanbecame the 33rd president. In his first months in office he dropped the atomic bomb on Japan, ending World War II. 10 Major Accomplishments of Harry S. Truman. Harry S. Truman (1884 - 1972) served as the 33rd President of the United States from April, 1945 to January, 1953. Under the presidency of Truman, the United States engaged in an internationalist foreign policy, a departure from its policy of isolationism. The Soviet Union, then led by Joseph Stalin, became an enemy in the Cold War. Truman oversaw the Berlin Airlift of 1948 and the creation of NATO in 1949, but was unable to stop Communists from taking over China in 1949. In 1950, he survived unharmed from an assassination attempt. President Harry S. Truman, warned by some of his advisers that any attempt to invade Japan would result in horrific American casualties, ordered that the new weapon be used to bring the war to a speedy end. On August 6, 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. In his first months in office he dropped the atomic bomb on Japan, ending World War II. His policy of communist containment started the Cold War, and he initiated U.S. involvement in the Korean War. Truman left office in 1953 and died in 1972.

Truman Doctrine

More generally, the Truman Doctrine implied American support for other nations allegedly threatened by Soviet communism. The Truman Doctrine became the foundation of American foreign policy, and led, in 1949, to the formation of NATO, a military alliance that is still in effect. The Truman Doctrine, 1947. With the Truman Doctrine, President Harry S. Truman established that the United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces. With the Truman Doctrine, President Harry S. Truman established that the United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces. ... Truman asked Congress to support the Greek Government against the Communists. The Truman Doctrine had some early successes. However, ultimately it could not succeed in preventing the spread of communism everywhere. It also erupted into some less than successful campaigns. For example, the Vietnam War and the Korean War are not success stories. When Truman officially embraced the containment of the Soviet communism as the United States primary foreign policy strategy.

Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) led the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, serving as premier from 1958 to 1964. Though he largely pursued a policy of peaceful coexistence with the West, he instigated the Cuban Missile Crisis by placing nuclear weapons 90 miles from Florida. Domestically, Nikita Khrushchev became known for his dramatic ideas, with some perceived as more humanistic and others ill-conceived. He attempted to humanize the Soviet system by relaxing restrictions on free expression and releasing waves of political prisoners from the infamous Gulag forced labor camps. Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (15 April 1894 - 11 September 1971) was a Soviet statesman who led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964.

Bay of Pigs

On April 17, 1961, 1400 Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba. In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolt that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Fifty years ago, shortly before midnight on 16 April 1961, a group of some 1,500 Cuban exiles trained and financed by the CIA launched an ill-fated invasion of Cuba from the sea in the Bay of Pigs. The plan was to overthrow Fidel Castro and his revolution. Bay of Pigs. In 1961 the United States sent trained Cuban exiles to Cuba to try and overthrow Fidel Castro's government. They failed miserably. The invasion is considered part of the Cold War because the United States was trying to prevent communism from taking hold in the Americas.

Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was the moment when the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict. It happened when the Soviet Union (USSR) began building missile sites in Cuba in 1962. Together with the earlier Berlin Blockade, this crisis is seen as one of the most important confrontations of the Cold War. It may have been the moment when the Cold War came closest to a nuclear war. Americans after October 1962 believed that the Soviet Union had equalled the United States' nuclear capability. The immediate effects were that missiles were withdrawn from Cuba, and the United States secretly agreed to withdraw its missiles from Turkey. In a dramatic televised address to the American public, President John F. Kennedy announces that the Soviet Union has placed nuclear weapons in Cuba and, in response, the United States will establish a blockade around the island to prevent any other offensive weapons from entering Castro's state.

Korean War

This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. By July, American troops had entered the waron South Korea's behalf. As far as American officials were concerned, it was a war against the forces of international communism itself. The Korean War was a conflict that emerged after World War II. The Empire of Japan had occupied the Korean Peninsula during the war. After Japan's defeat, the victorious Allies split the peninsula on the 38th parallel. U.S. troops occupied the southern part, while Soviet troops occupied the northern part. Aftermath of the Korean War. The aftermath of the Korean War set the tone for Cold War tension between all the superpowers. ... The war scarred both North and South Korea. Both nations suffered massive damage to their economies and infrastructure, as a result of bombings, artillery strikes and loss of skilled workers. The Cold War was an important cause in the Korean War. Relations between the two occupying powers were bad and when China became Communist in October 1949, the President of the USA, Harry Truman, was very worried that other countries around China may also become Communist, such as Japan.

CIA

When the CIA was created, its purpose was to create a clearinghouse for foreign policy intelligence and analysis. Today its primary purpose is to collect, analyze, evaluate, and disseminate foreign intelligence, and to perform covert actions. Purpose. When the CIA was created, its purpose was to create a clearinghouse for foreign policy intelligence and analysis. Today its primary purpose is to collect, analyze, evaluate, and disseminate foreign intelligence, and to perform covert actions. The Central Intelligence Agency was created on July 26, 1947, when Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act into law. A major impetus for the creation of the CIA was the unforeseen attack on Pearl Harbor.